‘Running girl’: Former Public Defender With Three Years Sober

RUNNING UP THE HILL, TO MAKE A DEAL WITH GOD –

Nov. 21, 2022 – She struggled after treatments in early 2017, each time returning to the drug. Her troubles spiraled out of control – more arrests, homelessness and prostitution, she said.

In June 2017, she resigned as a public defender and within weeks was facing possession charges. That fall, she flew to California in a delusional search for Lady Gaga and became homeless there for a year, when she wasn’t in jail .

She returned to Spokane around November 2018, after promising relatives she’d do treatment again. She didn’t. She was homeless here for nearly another year, and hit “rock bottom” in jail in 2019.

Once in recovery, Allen-Grant turned to running, and she kept on running after moving three years ago to Ascenda, a sober-living community along the Sunset Hill.

She first ran on a trail but gravitated to the hill for its lighting and a bike path. “I just like going uphill. It feels good, and it’s good for my mental health.”

Allen-Grant said she still feels remorse about drug use that spiralled out of control while a public defender. Hired in 2012 after graduating from Gonzaga University’s law school, it was a dream job that she did for five years, handling up to 150 cases at a time.